Electronic Arts Selected for Multi-Year Agreement for the Future of Star Wars Gaming

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Electronic Arts Selected for Multi-Year Agreement for the Future of Star Wars Gaming

Ugh... There are much better developers out there than EA, but at least BioWare will get to continue developing their star wars games. I would have loved, however, someone like 2K Games get a shot at bringing the "BioShock" experience to a Star Wars game.

Noticeably missing is the mention of Star Wars 1313.

Speaking of which, did anyone happen to see the hour-long Battlefront 3 preview? Looked really promising.

Nowhere in your incoherent ramblings did you come anywhere close to the answer. Thanks to you, everyone in this room is now stupider having heard you. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. -Billy Madison-

I'm not up on video games anymore, but hasn't EA annoyed a ton of gamers with their "always-on" nonsense and lots of related issues? We'll see how this shakes out, but at the moment it doesn't look like people are too pleased with this (but then again, why should that be different than anything they've announced since the buyout?).

If nothing else, I am glad to see that they'll still be making Star Wars games for consoles and not just mobile devices, since early quotes made it seem like this was the case.

Yeah, EA does alot of things that tick their audience off. A lot of those things require joining Origin and having to go from console to mobile devices to play a game.

Nowhere in your incoherent ramblings did you come anywhere close to the answer. Thanks to you, everyone in this room is now stupider having heard you. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. -Billy Madison-

Ugh... There are much better developers out there than EA, but at least BioWare will get to continue developing their star wars games. I would have loved, however, someone like 2K Games get a shot at bringing the "BioShock" experience to a Star Wars game.

Noticeably missing is the mention of Star Wars 1313.

Speaking of which, did anyone happen to see the hour-long Battlefront 3 preview? Looked really promising.

Ugh indeed, EA sucks mightily, they're considered among the worst offenders in the industry of... everything. I don't look forward to annual title re-ups and on-disc DLC and overly-aggressive anti-piracy measures.

Not sure how BioWare continuing on is a good thing, SW:TOR hasn't so much knocked socks off as bored audiences away, it's like they're coasting off of KOTOR from a decade ago.

Wow, gee, totally surprised nobody wanted to license 1313 with all its layers upon layers of proprietary technology that'd need to be separately licensed and then all the development having been scrapped in place of a Boba Fett game that went nowhere. Thanks Disney, jerks.

Originally Posted by Mr. JabbaJohnL

I'm not up on video games anymore, but hasn't EA annoyed a ton of gamers with their "always-on" nonsense and lots of related issues? We'll see how this shakes out, but at the moment it doesn't look like people are too pleased with this (but then again, why should that be different than anything they've announced since the buyout?).

If nothing else, I am glad to see that they'll still be making Star Wars games for consoles and not just mobile devices, since early quotes made it seem like this was the case.

Yeah, EA really blew it with Sim City's bogus "always on" requirement that made launch week a total disaster, and then it turns out the game's online AI doesn't work at all so the game COULD have been played offline easily and they were just covering up for another awful anti-piracy measure.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Not sure how BioWare continuing on is a good thing, SW:TOR hasn't so much knocked socks off as bored audiences away, it's like they're coasting off of KOTOR from a decade ago.

I guess it's because I'm still hoping they strike gold again with a game like KOTOR. The Mass Effect series was really well done, and I would like to see something like that done with Star Wars.

There are so many great video game developers out there, why sign a deal so quickly? I would have loved to see what the people at 2K games could do to a Star Wars game, or the Assassins Creed people at UbiSoft. Even 343 Industries or the developers over at Bungie would have brought a much needed new perspective the the Star Wars Universe. But with EA Games getting the contract, we know what we are going to get; cruddy game mechanics, stupid copyright gimmicks, ridiculous mobile game tie-ins, and a giant slap in the face from the current Star Wars establishment that it becoming a center point of the new reign.

You know what else bothers me about the termination of LucasArts? We never got a decent ending to The Force Unleashed. I know TFU2 was a complete slap in the face of the fans of the series, but it would have been nice to see how it ended.

Nowhere in your incoherent ramblings did you come anywhere close to the answer. Thanks to you, everyone in this room is now stupider having heard you. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. -Billy Madison-

Yeah, EA really blew it with Sim City's bogus "always on" requirement that made launch week a total disaster, and then it turns out the game's online AI doesn't work at all so the game COULD have been played offline easily and they were just covering up for another awful anti-piracy measure.

You think Sim City's "always on" requirement is bad, just wait till Microsoft's next generation Xbox comes out if the rumors are true. Now that will be a total disaster. Microsoft is supposed to announce the next gen system on May 21st, but right now the rumor is (from several credible insiders) that its supposed to have an "always on" requirement. If you aren't online the games simply won't play. Its supposed to be part of Microsoft's new strategy to appease publishers by preventing owners from playing used games. While a game disc will be required to play, the games themselves will be required to be downloaded directly onto the new Xbox's hard drive to play (as opposed to playing directly off the disc). Each disc will then have its own unique identification internally that the new Xbox will constantly check to the game data on the hard drive and the new Xbox system data/game data that is stored on your Xbox Live account.

You know what else bothers me about the termination of LucasArts? We never got a decent ending to The Force Unleashed. I know TFU2 was a complete slap in the face of the fans of the series, but it would have been nice to see how it ended.

It's entirely possible that there will still be a Force Unleashed III - and now it won't be from the same team that brought us the rushed FU II (whose acronym is very appropriate). FU III, 1313, and Battlefront III should probably at the top of EA's list if they want to please the fans.

I guess it's because I'm still hoping they strike gold again with a game like KOTOR. The Mass Effect series was really well done, and I would like to see something like that done with Star Wars.

EA and BioWare catches a lot of flak for the Mass Effect series ending though. The thing about BioWare is they've been spread too thin, so repeating KOTOR levels of quality would be difficult if not impossible.

There are so many great video game developers out there, why sign a deal so quickly? I would have loved to see what the people at 2K games could do to a Star Wars game, or the Assassins Creed people at UbiSoft. Even 343 Industries or the developers over at Bungie would have brought a much needed new perspective the the Star Wars Universe. But with EA Games getting the contract, we know what we are going to get; cruddy game mechanics, stupid copyright gimmicks, ridiculous mobile game tie-ins, and a giant slap in the face from the current Star Wars establishment that it becoming a center point of the new reign.

Yup, all right on the money.

You know what else bothers me about the termination of LucasArts? We never got a decent ending to The Force Unleashed. I know TFU2 was a complete slap in the face of the fans of the series, but it would have been nice to see how it ended.

Never thought about that, but it really doesn't feel complete. TFU feels complete without TFU2, but TFU2 doesn't feel complete at all.

Originally Posted by El Chuxter

Maybe I'm out of the loop more than I thought, but I seem to recall EA being one of the best 10-20 years ago. What changed?

You're really thinking about the EA of the SNES/Sega Genesis years, and they've become a giant insane company-eating conglomerate in the last decade or so. The last few years at EA have been all about annually milking franchises without notable improvements, microtransactions ("$5 to buy this car" and such), DLC, in-game advertising, a downward spiral in game-quality, and over-the-top DRM.

Originally Posted by Lord Malakite

You think Sim City's "always on" requirement is bad, just wait till Microsoft's next generation Xbox comes out if the rumors are true. Now that will be a total disaster. Microsoft is supposed to announce the next gen system on May 21st, but right now the rumor is (from several credible insiders) that its supposed to have an "always on" requirement. If you aren't online the games simply won't play. Its supposed to be part of Microsoft's new strategy to appease publishers by preventing owners from playing used games. While a game disc will be required to play, the games themselves will be required to be downloaded directly onto the new Xbox's hard drive to play (as opposed to playing directly off the disc). Each disc will then have its own unique identification internally that the new Xbox will constantly check to the game data on the hard drive and the new Xbox system data/game data that is stored on your Xbox Live account.

Here's the thing, with the Xbox, you know what you're getting into, you know in advance that it will require an always-online connection, and you can choose not to buy it because of that at the outset. With SimCity's launch, they really didn't tell you that, they undersold the problem and didn't recognize the demand, EA didn't invest enough in server technology to support that launch and it crushed it. Then they lied and mislead and made promises they couldn't keep to support the problem. And it wasn't on a console, it was on your own PC - you had no choice thanks to EA.

If they stick with this always-on DRM crap and require huge installs to the drive, there won't be much market for it. The industry has been trying to enact these 1-disc, 1-machine ideas for decades now to no avail, I doubt Microsoft will succeed where nobody else has.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

There would be such a huge anti-trust lawsuit if the next gen consoles pulled that crap. It would completely shut down several companies whose sole purpose is renting games.

Originally Posted by JediTricks

EA and BioWare catches a lot of flak for the Mass Effect series ending though. The thing about BioWare is they've been spread too thin, so repeating KOTOR levels of quality would be difficult if not impossible.

I never understand what they did with that ending. It's like they put all this time and effort into a great game, then were cut short on time. Even the extra ending that was downloadable content wasn't acceptable.

Nowhere in your incoherent ramblings did you come anywhere close to the answer. Thanks to you, everyone in this room is now stupider having heard you. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. -Billy Madison-